In 2005, almost half of the world’s population lived in a free country. Today, only 1 in 5 people enjoy such privilege. Even if you live in a free country now, you may not for much longer: the wind of change is against you.
Money is a big part of freedom: if your money is confiscated or restricted, then you’re not free at all.
In some cultures, part of the population has long been overtly financially repressed. But Bitcoin is already starting to help. For example, by being paid in bitcoins, Afghan women prevented from having bank accounts have been able to keep their own earnings, rather than having to hand them over to men.
Many regimes use the financial system overtly to repress their entire populations. Cubans have long turned to the US dollar to protect themselves from often-rampant local currency inflation, but in recent years both Cuban and US authorities have limited the ways of holding dollars in Cuba and closed down the channels to receive them from abroad. Of late, Cubans in large numbers have been turning to Bitcoin to remit, transact and save.
Autocratic regimes financially stifle their opponents. In Russia for example, the bank accounts of opposition groups are routinely shut down. But one group, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, circumvented this problem by receiving bitcoins directly from donors.
Due to the intermediated nature of traditional payments systems, humanitarian aid is sometimes syphoned off by pilfering middlemen, corrupt local officials, thieving political elites, and corrupt aid workers. By using Bitcoin, aid donors can eliminate many of these issues by paying funds directly to the recipient, irrespective of where they are in the world.
When a whole country comes under attack, the traditional financial system can cease to function. But when invaded by Russia in 2022, the government of Ukraine could immediately appeal to the international community for financial assistance in bitcoins.
And when things get so bad that fleeing the country is the only option, Bitcoin can be a lifeline, as it was for some Ukrainians who managed to flee to neighbouring countries with their savings. Even soldiers can’t confiscate money if it’s nothing but a memorised seed phrase which can be later be used to recover bitcoins.
Bitcoin is anti-repression, anti-tyranny, anti-corruption, anti-authoritarian, anti-warlord technology.
Bitcoin is human rights.